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Well, before i drop a ts3 (or whatever ess has to offer in 3 years from now), i'd like to make as much power N/A as possible. With all these crap cars coming out stock with like 260hp ect, i need a little boost to hold me over.

as far as n/a mods go, what is out there?

all i can pull out of my ass are:
headers
cams
tuning
port/polish
pullies
intake
differential

how much crank do you think i can extract with those? (i know its pretty bland and vague, but any help is great). I'm thinking maybe knicking 280hp/260tq?

what do you guys think... along with any brands you have in your head?

For a street driven car you can do cams and headers (no cats) for about a 30whp gain. Thats probably as good as you'll get without sacrificing streetability/reliability. There's not much point in opening the motor, especially if you're going to go FI later on. Everything will be out of spec for whatever setup you decide to go with.

the intake, shark and tune (which are essentially the same thing since you cant tune this DME as-is) wont get you anything really. Headers and cams on my car were good for 30whp, so id say somewhere between 250 and 260 crank, depending on your trans. Thats without cats though. Cats rob a great deal of power.

how much could i pull with the full list? (even though sc's are now pretty reliable)

Well, depends on how much money you have and how much low end torque you are willing to sacrifice.

I mean, if you had a very large budget, you could convert the accessory items like power steering and water pump to electric. You could get the head ported and polished. Maybe larger intake valves if they could fit and stronger valve springs. Increase the compression ratio, lighter connecting rods and pistons, increase the redline, an after market ecu custom tuned for power...

I'm sure 300hp is possible, but that would be extremely expensive. Also there are the added difficulties of keeping an engine like that emissions legal. But anything is possible with large amounts of money...

Well, depends on how much money you have and how much low end torque you are willing to sacrifice.

I mean, if you had a very large budget, you could convert the accessory items like power steering and water pump to electric. You could get the head ported and polished. Maybe larger intake valves if they could fit and stronger valve springs. Increase the compression ratio, lighter connecting rods and pistons, increase the redline, an after market ecu custom tuned for power...

I'm sure 300hp is possible, but that would be extremely expensive. Also there are the added difficulties of keeping an engine like that emissions legal. But anything is possible with large amounts of money...

Why not? Because it increases wear'n'tear? Or because it may seem that the money-to-performance ratio is too low?

When you do those things, you need to rebuild frequently. The car's powerband moves way above where you'd use it on the street. Having the ability to keep, tune and use VANOS becomes a $15,000 proposition as well. So you're pretty much guaranteed to have something expensive and useless for street driving.